Liverpool Philharmonic Hall is a concert hall in
Hope Street, in
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...
, England. It is the home of the
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Society
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic is a music organisation based in Liverpool, England, that manages a professional symphony orchestra, a concert venue, and extensive programmes of learning through music. Its orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmon ...
and is recorded in the
National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II*
listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
.
It is not the original concert hall on the present site; its predecessor was destroyed by fire in 1933 and the present hall was opened in 1939.
Original hall
The Liverpool Philharmonic Society was founded in 1840 but initially did not have a permanent concert hall. In 1844 the Liverpool architect
John Cunningham was appointed to prepare plans for a hall. The initial requirement was for a "concert room" holding an audience of 1,500 which would cost at least £4,000 (equivalent to £ in ). Later that year the requirement was increased to a "new concert hall" to accommodate an audience of 2,100 and an orchestra of 250, plus "refreshment and retiring rooms". Subscribers were invited to both buy shares and to purchase seats along the sides of the hall. The
foundation stone was laid in 1846 and plans were made for
Mendelssohn
Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (3 February 18094 November 1847), born and widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic music, Romantic period. Mendelssohn's compositi ...
to write a
cantata
A cantata (; ; literally "sung", past participle feminine singular of the Italian verb ''cantare'', "to sing") is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir.
The meaning of ...
to be played in his presence at the opening of the hall. Mendelssohn did not live long enough to write the work.
The hall cost £30,000 (equivalent to £ in ) and was opened on 27 August 1849 accompanied by a week long festival.
A correspondent for ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...
'' reported that it was "one of the finest and best adapted to music that I ever entered". The correspondent described the interior:
According to ''
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians
''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language ''Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', it is one of the largest reference works on the history and theo ...
'', the hall was universally agreed to have superb acoustics. A new
organ
Organ may refer to:
Biology
* Organ (biology), a part of an organism
Musical instruments
* Organ (music), a family of keyboard musical instruments characterized by sustained tone
** Electronic organ, an electronic keyboard instrument
** Hammond ...
was installed in the hall in 1930 at a cost of £2,000 (equivalent to £ in ).
The concert hall continued to be the home of the society until a fire broke out during the evening of 5 July 1933. Despite over 100 firemen attending the fire, the hall and new organ were damaged beyond repair.
[ Over 10,000 people stood in the streets around the hall to view the fire.][ There were no serious injuries - the hall had closed for the day - though two boys fell into the basement while watching the fire and a number of onlookers fainted or collapsed.][ The next day the chairman of the Philharmonic Society announced that the hall would certainly be rebuilt, saying that until then they would need to find a replacement hall in which to play.] The hall contained a number of autograph books dating from 1848; these were contained in a fire-proof safe and thus kept safe along with autographed pictures and some instruments, though the music library was lost.[ The building was insured, and the insurers paid £84,000 (equivalent to £ in ) for the hall itself, £9,503 (equivalent to £ in ) for other assets, and £6,000 (equivalent to £ in ) for the loss of two years' rental. The exact cause of the fire was not known; only that it originated in the roof of the building.] Demolition work on the building's ruins began the next day.
Present hall
History
The building of a new hall was delayed by the demands of Liverpool City Corporation, which announced that it would not support the building of a venue suitable only as a concert hall. The corporation demanded an auditorium equally suited to cinema and theatre use. Controversy ensued with vocal opposition to the corporation's stance led by the doyen of British conductors, Sir Henry Wood
Sir Henry Joseph Wood (3 March 186919 August 1944) was an English conductor best known for his association with London's annual series of promenade concerts, known as the The Proms, Proms. He conducted them for nearly half a century, introd ...
. A compromise was reached and work began in June 1937.
Herbert J. Rowse was commissioned to design a new hall on the site of the previous hall. Rowse's design was in Streamline Moderne
Streamline Moderne is an international style of Art Deco architecture and design that emerged in the 1930s. Inspired by aerodynamic design, it emphasized curving forms, long horizontal lines, and sometimes nautical elements. In industrial design ...
style. It incorporated an organ built by the Liverpool firm of Rushworth and Dreaper
Rushworth and Dreaper was a firm of organ builders, and later general instrument suppliers associated with Paul McCartney based in Liverpool. The manufacturer was founded in 1828 by William Rushworth, operating until 2002. Upon its liquidation, ...
with a console which can be lowered from the stage. The hall was officially opened on 19 June 1939, and inaugurated the next day with a concert conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham. ''The Manchester Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' commented, "The magnificent compliment Liverpool has paid to the cause of music in England almost takes one's breath away ... a hall of great size, noble proportions, and up-to-date appointments ... ready to take its place among the most eminent homes of musical culture in this or any other country". The final cost of the hall was a little over £120,000 (equivalent to £ in ) and the architect was paid £6,869 (equivalent to £ in ). An extension was added to the rear of the hall which was completed in 1992, designed by Brock Carmichael Associates. A major refurbishment of the hall was carried out in 1995 at a cost of £10.3 million. This included the complete replacement of the fibrous plaster
Plasterwork is construction or ornamentation done with plaster, such as a layer of plaster on an interior or exterior wall structure, or plaster decorative moldings on ceilings or walls. This is also sometimes called pargeting. The process of ...
interior with concrete, carried out again by Brock Carmichael, working with the acoustic consultant firm Lawrence Kirkegaard Associates.[ A local violinist, John Frederick Clarke, who was part of the famed ]RMS Titanic
RMS ''Titanic'' was a British passenger liner, operated by the White Star Line, which sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912 after striking an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, United ...
orchestra
An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families.
There are typically four main sections of instruments:
* bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...
, and the other band members who died during the ship's sinking in 1912 are all commemorated on a memorial plaque within Philharmonic Hall.
A further renovation, costing around £14 million, was completed in October 2015, primarily refurbishing the main concert hall and auditorium, and adding a new performance space named the Music Room.
Architecture
The hall is built with fawn-coloured facing bricks, and is mainly in three storeys. It has a symmetrical frontage with a canopied entrance flanked by semicircular stair turret
Turret may refer to:
* Turret (architecture), a small tower that projects above the wall of a building
* Gun turret, a mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon
* Objective turret, an indexable holder of multiple lenses in an optical microscope
* Mi ...
s. Above the entrance are seven windows that are separated by piers Piers may refer to:
* Pier, a raised structure over a body of water
* Pier (architecture), an architectural support
* Piers (name), a given name and surname (including lists of people with the name)
* Piers baronets, two titles, in the baronetages ...
surmounted by carved abstract motifs. Outside the hall and separated from it are two piers for the display of posters.[ The architectural historians Pollard and Pevsner and the author of the description in the ''National Heritage List for England'' agree that the design of the hall was influenced by the Dutch architect W. M. Dudok.][
The windows above the canopy contain glass etched by ]Hector Whistler
Reginald Hector Whistler (22 January 1905, in Jersey, Channel Islands–1978), known as Hector, was a painter, muralist and illustrator. He was the cousin of artist Rex Whistler and glass engraver Lawrence Whistler.
His life and creative activi ...
. Glass doors panels by Whistler, originally from the building, and depicting musical instruments in art deco
Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...
style, were featured on the BBC One's '' Antiques Roadshow'' in March 2015. Thirteen Pilkington glass
Pilkington is a Japanese-owned glass-manufacturing company which is based in Lathom, Lancashire, United Kingdom. In the UK it includes several legal entities and is a subsidiary of Japanese company NSG Group.
Prior to its acquisition by NSG ...
panels had been purchased from a market in France by a Liverpool dealer, who expressed an interest in donating some to local museums. Inside the entrance to the hall is a copper memorial to the musicians of the ''Titanic
RMS ''Titanic'' was a British passenger liner, operated by the White Star Line, which sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912 after striking an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, United ...
'' by J. A. Hodel, and on the landings are gilded
Gilding is a decorative technique for applying a very thin coating of gold over solid surfaces such as metal (most common), wood, porcelain, or stone. A gilded object is also described as "gilt". Where metal is gilded, the metal below was tradi ...
relief
Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the ...
s of Apollo
Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label=Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label= ...
by Edmund C. Thompson.[ The interior of the ]auditorium
An auditorium is a room built to enable an audience to hear and watch performances. For movie theatres, the number of auditoria (or auditoriums) is expressed as the number of screens. Auditoria can be found in entertainment venues, community ...
is "sensuously curved".[ On the walls on each side are incised female figures in art deco style that represent "musical moods", also by Thompson. On the back wall above the platform was a ]kinetic
Kinetic (Ancient Greek: κίνησις “kinesis”, movement or to move) may refer to:
* Kinetic theory of gases, Kinetic theory, describing a gas as particles in random motion
* Kinetic energy, the energy of an object that it possesses due to i ...
structure, called ''Adagio'', designed by Marianne Forrest in 1995;[ however this was moved to the nearby Harold Cohen Library at the ]University of Liverpool
, mottoeng = These days of peace foster learning
, established = 1881 – University College Liverpool1884 – affiliated to the federal Victoria Universityhttp://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukla/2004/4 University of Manchester Act 200 ...
in 2016.
The hall contains a 3-manual pipe organ built by Rushworth and Dreaper
Rushworth and Dreaper was a firm of organ builders, and later general instrument suppliers associated with Paul McCartney based in Liverpool. The manufacturer was founded in 1828 by William Rushworth, operating until 2002. Upon its liquidation, ...
, with a console on a lifting platform that can be played on the stage or from the area below the stage, and a Walturdaw rising cinema screen.
Current use
The hall stages over 250 events each year, of which more than 60 are concerts of classical music. The main hall has a capacity of 1,700 with smaller events taking place in the Music, Green and 1840 rooms. The other shows include music of all genres (including international artists such as Sir Cliff Richard, Bryan Ferry, Brian Wilson, Kraftwerk and Gilbert O'Sullivan), comedians, and films shown on the Walturdaw screen. Tours of the hall are arranged, and the hall can he hired for corporate or private events, including weddings.
See also
*Grade II* listed buildings in Liverpool – City Centre
There are over 2500 listed buildings in Liverpool, England. A listed building is one considered to be of special architectural, historical or cultural significance, which is protected from being demolished, extended or altered, unless special p ...
*Architecture of Liverpool
The architecture of Liverpool is rooted in the city's development into a major port of the British Empire.Hughes (1999), p10 It encompasses a variety of architectural styles of the past 300 years, while next to nothing remains of its medieval ...
* Philharmonic Dining Rooms "The Phil" public house
References
Citations
Sources
*
*
*
External links
RLPO official site
{{Authority control
Art Deco architecture in Liverpool
Liverpool, Philharmonic Hall
Concert halls in England
Grade II* listed buildings in Liverpool
Music venues in Liverpool
Liverpool, Philharmonic Hall
Tourist attractions in Liverpool
John Cunningham buildings
Hope Street, Liverpool